Nursing Camp
by Cramp-Gleem-Lack
Summary: Rowe came to Camp Green Lake to nurse, and now she has to deal with taking care of camp -and- D-Tent
1. Chapter One: Camp Green Lake

Nursing Camp  
  
-Cramp_Gleem_Lack-  
  
Chapter One: Camp Green Lake  
  
Rowe stepped out of her car and onto the dusty ground. It was hot - hotter than she expected - and she could feel little beads of sweat appear on her forehead. She looked around, taking in the dark grey tents, and the tired, dusty boys milling around the desert camp. Rowe moved to the back of her Honda and popped open the trunk, pulled out her duffle bag, and shut the trunk. She looked around, but all she saw were the grey tents and a shack that read, "library".  
  
She stood by the trunk for a minute, just looking around. Now where was the main building? Rowe saw a group of boys walking toward the tents. Hoisting her bag on her shoulders, she started walking to them.  
  
She called to them as they walked to a tent. "Hey! Hey!" Rowe waved her arm and jogged toward them.  
  
One of the boys, a short black one with thick glasses, looked her up and down, and smirked.  
  
"Hey uh, could ya'll tell me where I can find Lou Walker?" she asked, pulling her bag up again.  
  
"Hell, girl! You talkin' 'bout the Warden?" said the black kid.  
  
"Yeah, yeah I guess. You know were she is?" Rowe asked, putting her hands on her hips. If he wanted attitude, she was more than happy to give it to him.  
  
"I might," he said, looking down at his nails.  
  
"Oh you might, huh?" Rowe lifted one eyebrow and walked over to the steps he was standing on. She snatched his hat off his head and threw it behind her. "You wanna tell me, or do you want me to take your glasses next?" The kid licked his teeth in irritation and nudged the tall blonde boy beside him.  
  
"Over that way," he said, pointing down the dusty road. Rowe saw a long wooden building with a covered porch, and hoisted her bag up again. "Thanks," she said, giving him a half-smile. Then, shooting a smart-ass look at the black boy, she started off toward the building. Behind her, the black boy muttered, "Man, I feel sorry for whoever gets stuck with that..."  
  
Rowe smirked.  
  
-------  
  
The feel of the cool air and the shade made Rowe smile and she let out a breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding. She knocked on the open door and looked toward a desk in the back of the room. A man was sitting at the desk, and he looked like the oddest man Rowe had ever seen. He had spiky hair and a short, bristly beard...in fact, he looked like a cross between a rooster and a lizard. Next to him, a tall, skinny, redheaded woman in a cowboy hat stood with her hands on her hips. She was very freckly, and looked at her through beady eyes.  
  
"Yeh?" He grunted, smashing a cigarette into a glass ashtray.  
  
"I'm uh..." Rowe faltered under the intense gazes of her two employers. "Uh..."  
  
"Miss Stewart," the woman said. She walked over to Rowe and shook her hand. "I'm Lou Walker, the warden of this camp. That," The Warden motioned to the man at the desk, who was spitting sunflower seeds into a trash can. "is Mr. Sir. He'll be in charge of the campers. If you have any problems, see him. Don't bother me unless it's an emergency."  
  
Rowe watched the Warden walk to a file cabinet and pull some files that had been resting on the top it into her hands. She walked back over to Rowe and dropped the pile into her hands. It was so heavy, that her knees buckled from the unexpected weight. The warden paid no attention to her, said, "Follow me," and walked out of the office.  
  
"The top file is a list of all the campers, what tent they're in, who their counselor is, and their pictures. The second is a list of the medical supplies, where to get them, how to order them. In the heavy file is a list of the campers. You'll find every list of misdemeanors, transgressions, every crime, and how long they'll be here. There's also background checks and physical and psychological history."  
  
The Warden had lead Rowe to a tent that looked exactly like the rest - the only difference being a sign tacked on the flap that read, "Nurses Tent". It was large inside, with one cot against one wall and another cot on the opposite wall. On the back wall was a large wooden cabinet full of medical supplies. Next to the cabinet was a large, metal sink, equipped with pipes for running water. Rowe figured they were connected to the showers she had seen outside.  
  
"That is your private quarters," the Warden said, pointing to the cot on the far wall. Rowe looked confused, and the Warden said, "It's where you sleep."  
  
"No, no, no," Rowe said, "Its just...I didn't think I'd be sleeping in the same room as my patients."  
  
"Well," the Warden said smartly, "This is just a temporary residence until we finish remodeling your castle." Her face dropped and she said tersely, "Pull the curtain and you'll be in your room. You suggest you get started on those files."  
  
Rowe let out a breath when the Warden had left. She dropped her duffle bag on the cot and opened it, removing a heavy sleeping bag from it. She laid it down on the top of the cot...it might make it a little more comfortable. Next, she began to empty her bag, shoving her clothes into the small night dresser at the foot of her cot.  
  
When her bag was sufficiently shoved under the bed, Rowe wandered around the small infirmary, spotting two extra cots on a shelf above the medicine cabinet, and a few hospital gowns in the drawer under it. Inside the cabinet were some packages of gauze, antiseptics, ointments and creams, and antidotes for scorpion stings and snake bites. And there were also some bottles of onion juice - for the lizards, of course.  
  
As Rowe was going through the medicine cabinet, the flap opened and there were footsteps on the wooden floor. Rowe turned around to see the black boy that had been by the tent, along with his tall friend and a few other boys.  
  
"So you're a nurse, huh?" He said, crossing his arms.  
  
"Guess I am," she mocked, crossing her arms too. "Anything I can do for you boys?"  
  
"Well..." the boy smirked, "There are a few things I can think of..." he grabbed his crotch and the boys behind him laughed and looked at Rowe to see what she would do.  
  
"Hey! You're a funny kid! And you know what's really funny?" She was next to him in two strides, and quickly snatched off his hat.  
  
He smirked again. "I don't need that hat," he said.  
  
"Yeah?" Rowe asked. "So then I guess you don't need these either?" She swiped his glasses off his face and he shouted in indignation.  
  
"Come on, lady! Give those back!"  
  
Rowe smacked him upside the head. "Didn't your mother teach you manners?" she asked. "Now if you don't have any real injuries, you wouldn't mind getting out? I'll guess you know where the door is. Have a nice day, boys."  
  
"Damn girl, I need my glasses!"  
  
"You keep talkin' like that to me, and you'll never get them back. You can have them once you learn your manners, kiddo. I'm sure you're friends here won't mind helping you get around."  
  
The boy left with his friends, swearing, as they held onto his arms. One boy, though, stayed behind.  
  
"Can I help you?" Rowe asked.  
  
"I got these cuts from my shovel," the boy said. He was tall and muscular, with frizzy blonde hair and startlingly blue eyes. "They've been stingin' all day...keepin' me from diggin'."  
  
"Alright, take a sit down on that cot. I'm not sure what I've got, so I might not have any bandages." Rowe moved to the cabinet again and pushed through all the labeled pills and asthma inhalers. The Warden had mentioned that they needed a nurse partly because of so many sick kids, and partly because the camp didn't have enough money to pay for any more hospital bills. Rowe found some cheap Neosporin and some gauze in the back of the middle shelf of the cabinet. Obviously the Warden wasn't too big on health care.  
  
"Can I see your hands?" She asked. The boy held his hands out, and Rowe opened the box of bandages and uncapped the Neosporin. She took his hands in hers, not failing to notice how tanned they were from the sun, nor how rough they were. Along the inside of his thumb and forefinger were tiny cuts that were filled with dirt. Rowe sucked in her breath.  
  
"Hold on," she said, "I should wash those out." She took a towel from the top of the cabinet and rubbed it in the sink with soap and water.  
  
"Sorry about X," the boy said.  
  
"X...?"  
  
"X-Ray...The kid with the glasses."  
  
"Oh, right. The kid who thinks I'm the camp whore." She walked over and kneeled in front of him, taking his hands and gently rubbing the towel over his cuts. He sucked in his breath and she said, "Sorry...it's gonna sting."  
  
"Hahaha...thanks for the warning."  
  
"Any time." Rowe grinned. She saw more cuts on his palm, and started cleaning them. "So this kid...X-Ray? Weird name for a kid."  
  
"Its just what we call him," he said. "We all have name's for each other."  
  
"Nicknames, huh? So what's yours, Blondie?"  
  
"ZigZag."  
  
"How fitting."  
  
"I know. These cats are genius. You got a name, Red?"  
  
"Rowe. But I'm sure you kids'll think of something much more fitting for me."  
  
"Rowe? That's -"  
  
"Strange? Unusual? Yeah, I thought so too. You get used to it after a while." She put the gauze over his palm, wrapping his hand up and taping it to stay.  
  
"You know, you don't look old enough to be a nurse." Zigzag said as she was wrapping up his left hand.  
  
"I'm only seventeen," she said. "Eighteen in a few months."  
  
"How many?"  
  
"Six." Zigzag laughed and Rowe started unrolling the gauze tape. "How old are you, Blondie?"  
  
"Almost eighteen."  
  
"How long?"  
  
"Four months." It was Rowe's turn to laugh as she finished taping his hand.  
  
"All done. You're free to leave the evil wrath of the nurse." She rose from the floor and watched Zigzag head out the door.  
  
"You know, you weren't that bad," he said with a half-smile.  
  
"Hey," she called suddenly. She reached above the medicine cabinet and threw something to him. It was X-Ray's hat and glasses. "Tell your friend he'd better start actin' like a gentleman." Zigzag saluted with the glasses and hopped down the stairs. 


	2. Chapter Two: Day Two at Green Lake

A.N: Thanks for reviewing ya'll!!! And if I've gotten anything wrong, like with the boys sentences or crimes or anything, please tell me! I don't have the Guide to Camp Green Lake, but if you do, will you tell me so I can get this stuff right? Thanks, and please review!  
  
-Cramp-  
  
Chapter Two: Day Two at Green Lake  
  
Rowe yawned. She was tired - the hot sun, the warm air, and the fact that she had gotten up at 4:30 in the morning to see the boys off.  
  
It was a rule at Camp Green Lake that all staff and campers had to get up at 4:30. Unfortunately, that meant Nurses too. So, very tired and extremely stiff (cots had limited space for movement), Rowe got up, wiping her puffy eyes and looking for her glasses.  
  
By the time the boys were eating breakfast, Rowe was looking in the mirror, brushing her hair. Or at least, trying to brush her hair. It was a very difficult thing to do in the pitch black of early morning. But it wasn't entirely a bad thing, Rowe thought. She didn't have to look at her annoyingly red, extremely frizzy hair (thank you, humidity.) She didn't have to see her face (which she thought, wasn't a pleasant thing to look at at all), and she didn't have to see that her head only barely peeked over the bottom of the mirror (all the Stewart women had been less than five- five.Rowe herself was five-three, taller than her mother had been.)  
  
Satisfied that she had at least combed the sleep out, Rowe stumbled down the steps of her tent and into the mess hall, and grabbed a bagel in the counselor's back room, where she made small talk with the other (all male) counselors. It wasn't until ten to five that they herded the boys outside to get shovels.  
  
Thinking back, Rowe had been almost excited to see Zigzag - something she hadn't felt in a long time. She had been to preoccupied before to really notice boys, and it wasn't until recently that she had become convinced that boys really weren't that stupid.And then she came to an all-boys detention camp. Good decision making, along with height, was lacking in her genes.  
  
Rowe turned her attention back to the files sitting in her lap. As they approached each Tent's digging site, she read up on the campers in each one. This next group of diggers was D-Tent, Zigzag's tent.  
  
D-Tent:  
  
Detainee: Stanley Yelnats  
  
Age: 15 Height: 6'0 Weight: 160  
  
Crime: Stealing shoes - Clide Livingston's donation to homeless shelter Sentence: 18 months  
  
Detainee: Rex Tatum  
  
Age: 16 Height: 5'7 Weight: 153  
  
Crime: Drugs - Caught selling powdered Advil on school campus Sentence: 28 months  
  
Detainee: Hector Zeroni  
  
Age: 14 ½ Height: 5'4 Weight: 124  
  
Crime: Stealing - Payless, two pairs of shoes Sentence: 22 months  
  
Detainee: Alan Petonni  
  
Age: 17 Height: 6'1 Weight: 157  
  
Crime: Stealing liquor Sentence: 26 months  
  
Detainee: Jose Gonzalez  
  
Age:16 ½ Height: 5'8 Weight: 166  
  
Crime: Shoplifting - taking a puppy from a pet store Sentence: 17 months  
  
Detainee: Ricky O'Neal  
  
Age: 16 Height: 6'3 Weight: 168  
  
Crime: Pyrotechnics - setting school property on fire Sentence: 28 months  
  
Detainee: Theodore Jackson  
  
Age: 15 Height: 5'7 ½ Weight: 187 ¾  
  
Crime: Selling stolen property Sentence: 20 months  
  
"Smoke?"  
  
Rowe was jolted out of her reading by the sound of a rough voice.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I said, 'smoke?' You want one?" Mr. Sir held out a pack of cigarettes. Feeling she'd better not refuse, Rowe took one, and placed it in her pocket when Mr. Sir looked back to the road. She had offered to help him fill the boy's canteens, which Rowe had figured out early on, 'helping' really meant 'Mr. Sir sitting in the car smoking and drinking refrigerated Cokes while Rowena did all the work'.  
  
Mr. Sir pulled up at a cluster of holes and banged the outside of his door with his fist. "D-Tent! Water! Stop diggin' them holes and git your water!"  
  
Rowe slipped out of the truck and headed to the back, where the boys of D- Tent were lining up to get their water. Each of them looked tired and dirty, and they still had a few more feet left to dig in their holes.  
  
X-Ray was standing in the front of the line. He handed his canteen roughly to Rowe, and she filled it up and handed it back, squinting in the harsh sunlight. The next canteen she took belonged to Squid..she recognised the boy as Alan Petonni; the next was Armpit - Theodore, she thought; then Zigzag..Ricky. She smiled at him, and she thought he smiled back, although she couldn't really tell through all the dirt and grime that covered his face. Magnet (Jose, she noticed) came after Zigzag, then Caveman (Stanley.wasn't that Yelnats backwards?), then Zero (Hector?.he didn't look like a Hector.)  
  
Rowe clambered back in the truck, looking back at the digging boys as Mr. Sir drove away.  
  
Through the dust, she swore she could see Zigzag standing, shovel in hand, staring, as the truck moved slowly away. 


	3. Chapter Three: Day Three at Green Lake

A.N: I wanna say a quick thanks to:  
  
chicken_luuver: hey, PG's just a start! It'll prolly get up to even PG-13!! oOoOo!! How scandelous ;) haha thanks so much for the review!  
  
GriffinFox: I'm sorry about the story thing! But thanks for your reviews!  
  
Tears of Blood From My Eyes: * hugs Zigzag * awwww, he's just so lovable!  
  
LTdaQT: thank you SO much!!!! Wow.I can't believe you think this story is so good! Thanks!  
  
Thanks to everybody who reviewed! It means a lot to me! Thanks! Oh, and this whole uploading thing is messing up the spacing.In chapter two, I had all these spaces to make it easier to read the files, but it didn't work! If you can, please help me! AND ALSO: I really don't know how to take care of somebody with heatstroke. It is deadly! So what I looked it up on WebMD is only what you should do before you take them to the hospital for real care. (  
  
Chapter Three: Day Three at Green Lake  
  
Rowe stood in the Nurse's Tent, cleaning out the medicine cabinet. She sighed heavily. There were so many things she needed. It was hard to do her job without proper equipment. She was lucky that the boys had gotten only minor injuries - some boys from A-Tent had gotten in a scuffle and had some cuts and bruises that were simple to take care of, and a few other boys had come in to take their medication, or to use their inhalers.  
  
No, what Rowe really needed was some sort of order.she needed to order supplies in case something big happened. What she really needed was a computer.a laptop so she could work in the tent and be able to help the campers. A filing system wouldn't hurt either - she could keep track of the things she had, and the things she needed.  
  
"Clean up that mess in the wreck room! Mr. Sir! I need to talk to you!"  
  
The sound of the Warden's voice floated into the tent, and Rowe turned around and rushed out of the cabin. The redheaded woman was walking quickly down the dirt path through the tents. Rowe ran to catch up with her. When she was a few feet behind her, Rowe called:  
  
"Hey! Umm.Lou? Lou!"  
  
The Warden didn't stop walking, but called, "What is it you want?"  
  
"I was wondering if uh, if I could get a computer - or maybe a laptop - you know, for filing and things?" The Warden stopped walking and turned around, hands on her hips.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Well, I just.its just if there's a filing system, or - or a record of some kind, I could-"  
  
"Excuse me? What did I tell you?"  
  
"Um.pardon?" Rowe didn't think it would go over well if she said, "Excuse me?" back to the Warden.  
  
"I told you that if it wasn't important, take it to Mr. Sir. Now go off and leave me be, I have more important things to worry about."  
  
The Warden hadn't gone two steps when there was a loud honking noise and yelling behind them.  
  
"Stewart! Git in here quick, we got us a live one down in D-Tent!" Rowe turned sharply around and saw Mr. Sir yelling out the back of his truck. "Git in! What're you waitin' for?!"  
  
Rowe ran into her tent and grabbed a plastic bag and ran back into the truck. "What happened?!" She asked. Mr. Sir stepped on the gas and the truck shot off into the desert.  
  
"I don't know, 'zactly," Mr. Sir said distractedly. "I just walked out and there was Squid, lyin' on the ground." The tires of the truck squealed as Mr. Sir slammed on the brakes just beside D-Tent's digging area. Rowe jumped out, bag in hand, and ran around the truck to see the brown-haired boy lying on the dusty ground, his tent-mates standing around him in a worried circle.  
  
Rowe pushed her way through them, saying, "Move it, let me through," until she was able to drop down beside the fallen camper. She felt his forehead - he was burning. Rowe put her fingers on Squid's neck, trying to feel his pulse, and when she found it, she had to lean her ear on his chest to make sure she was feeling it right. His pulse was too fast. He was drenched in sweat.  
  
"Somebody get him into the truck!" She yelled, getting up off her knees. "Come on, get him into the back!"  
  
Mr. Sir opened the back of the truck and Rowe climbed into it. Zigzag had at once dropped down by Squid's head and, with the help of Caveman, loaded Squid into the bed of the truck. X-Ray stood scowling, standing away from the rest of D-Tent. Mr. Sir started the trunk on Rowe's command, with Zigzag and Caveman still in the bed with her. She'd need their help in a second.  
  
The moment the truck pulled up to the Nurse's Tent, Rowe jumped out, the two boys and Squid followed her inside.  
  
"Lay him down on that cot," she said quickly. Rowe moved to the cabinet and searched for plastic bags and a thermometer. "Caveman! Take these bags, and go look for ice. There should be some either in the mess hall or in Mr. Sir's office. Hurry!" Caveman hurried out of the room with the bags, and Rowe stuck the thermometer in Squid's ear. "105.damn. Here, help me strip him down. We have to get him as cool as we can."  
  
Rowe began taking off Squid's shoes and socks. "What's wrong with him?" Zigzag asked, struggling to take off Squid's orange jumpsuit.  
  
"Heatstroke. Been out in the sun too long." Rowe was wiggling Squid's jumpsuit down and off his body. "There's a fan in the cabinet, I need you to get it and fan him. We need to lower his heart-rate and get him cooled down."  
  
Caveman ran into the tent, holding three bags of ice. "Put them on his neck and under his arms." The three stood back and looked at their pale friend.  
  
"What do we do now?" Caveman asked.  
  
"All we can do," Rowe said. "Wait."  
  
And with that, she pulled up a chair. 


	4. Chapter Four: Rodney and the Aftermath

A.N: I wanna say a quick thanks to everybody who reviewed! It's been so great getting everybody's reviews and hearing what you think about this! Thanks again so much! I would have never gotten up to Chapter Four if it wasn't for ya'll!  
  
Unfortunately, I'm not too happy with the layout of this story - I mean, I don't like how it appears on the site. In my writing, I have bigger spaces between paragraphs and bold and italicized words, but I can't manage to get that into the site! PLEASE HELP! I really want this story to look its best as well as be written the best - which means I'll be going back and adding to and changing a lot of things so that you guys can enjoy this as much as possible! Thanks so much!  
  
-Cramp-  
  
Chapter Four: Rodney and the Aftermath  
  
Somewhere in between the waiting, more waiting, and the inevitable waiting that was sure to follow that, Rowe had gotten the ingenious idea to make a homemade I.V. - a plastic I.V. bag left over from who-knows-what, some tape, straws, and a needle. This would be (hopefully) sufficient proof to the Warden that she needed better medical supplies. There wasn't a hospital around for miles.thousands and thousands of dry, dusty land that held no hope of ever becoming a building site for a good hospital.  
  
Squid was stable, but still unconscious with a light fever, but the fear had passed and it was safe to assume that, besides being left very weak and unable to dig holes for a while, he would be perfectly fine.  
  
Caveman had left hours ago, after the rest of D-Tent and some other boys from camp looked in to see how Squid was doing, but Zigzag had remained by her side, sitting in a chair, napping on her cot, and now laying on the floor next to where Rowe sat slumped in her chair. She had long since rolled up the legs of her jeans, and was now savoring the cool breeze that was wafting through the tent flap.  
  
"Why did you come here?" Zigzag said lazily. His eyes were closed, his head propped up on his arms, laying comfortably with his back on the wooden floor and his legs crossed in front of him.  
  
"Hmm?" Rowe tilted her head slightly, still wanting to enjoy the breeze as much as she could - she didn't know when it would come again, if it EVER came again, anyway.  
  
"Why did you come here, to Green Lake?" he asked again, tapping his foot idly. "I'm sure there are better places for you to go."  
  
"Not really," Rowe said, chuckling. "This was the only job I could get."  
  
"Really?" Zigzag said, laughing languidly.  
  
"No, of course not!" Rowe said with a smile. "It was just a chance to get away from my family." She sighed, then said with a grin, "Besides, not many people would hire a seventeen-year-old girl. They didn't think I had enough training. Hell, I even had to convince the Warden to let me come here. Promised her I'd stay out of her way, you know.things like that."  
  
Zigzag opened his eyes widely and looked up and Rowe from his spot on the ground. "Really?"  
  
"No, I just dropped in yesterday and said, 'oh by the way, I'll be your nurse for the next few years. I expect full pay, shelter, and food.hope that isn't a problem!'" She laughed. "Of course I did. People think I'm too young to do anything."  
  
"People suck," Zigzag said, settling his head back into his arms and closing his eyes again.  
  
"Yup," Rowe agreed, and they settled back into a comfortable silence.  
  
The night grew dark around them, and it wasn't long before the cool breeze and dark evening lulled the two teens to sleep. Around them, campers went to dinner, then headed off to shower, or to the wreck room, and a few even turned in early to get ready for the next day's long work.  
  
Rowe was having a particularly good dream, in which she was on a cruise ship surrounded by muscled men in tiny blue skivvies handing her cocktails, when she was shaken awake by a tall man with dark, dark hair and blue, blue eyes. When her eyes had adjusted, saw that he was carrying two trays of some lumpy substance and a slice of bread on each plate.  
  
"Rod?"  
  
Rod, the last-nameless counselor of A-Tent (sneaky little buggers, A-Tent), stood tall at over six and a half feet, rarely spoke, and on that rare occasion that he did, it was never more than a few words said in a deep, husky voice.  
  
"Brought you dinner," he said slowly. Rowe sat up in her chair, blinking.  
  
"What time is it?" She asked, yawning widely.  
  
"Nearly eight," Rod replied. "Slept for a while. Gets dark quick out here, dun'nit."  
  
"Sure does. Who's the other tray for?"  
  
"Zigzag."  
  
"He's still here?"  
  
"Looks that way." Rowe looked down and saw Zigzag asleep on the floor, rolled over on one side so that his right arm flopped down over his face.  
  
"Zig," she called, "Zig, wake up. Come on now, Rod brought us lunch." When he didn't move, Rowe tapped him with the edge of her boot. "Zig! Ricky! Wake up!" She rolled her eyes exasperatedly, and kicked him hard in the stomach.  
  
"OW! Holy mother of god! What the-" Zigzag rubbed his stomach and looked up at Rowe indignantly. "What was that for?!"  
  
"Dinner," Rod said. Zigzag jumped up in surprise, and took the tray gingerly from Rod's outstretched hands.  
  
"Nice work," Rod said, looking at Rowe's homemade I.V.  
  
"Thanks. Think the Warden will spring for some real equipment?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"That's what I thought. Oh well, it's worth a try, isn't it?"  
  
"Couldn't hurt."  
  
"Unless she puts on that nail polish," Zigzag said, shivering. "She hit Mr. Sir one time.man.Caveman has wicked good luck, I'm tellin' ya." He mopped his bread in the sloppy excuse for food that was his dinner and took a seat on the floor. Rowe pushed aside her plate. "Not hungry," she said, seeing Rod's look.  
  
In the cot, Squid started to stir. Rowe pushed herself out of her seat, cracking her back from being in such an odd position for such a long time, and headed over to her patient's side.  
  
"Squid?" She said, "Squid, can you hear me?" Zigzag put down his plate and pushed himself off the wall to join Rowe by his friend's side.  
  
"Ughn.." Squid groaned and rolled over on the cot, facing the wall.  
  
"What's wrong with him now?" Zigzag asked worriedly.  
  
"Nothing," Rowe whispered. "He's sleeping. We should go - I don't want him to wake up." She turned around to say thank you to Rod, but he had already slipped out of the tent, and was gone.  
  
Rowe let the cold water fall on her head and travel down her body. She was freezing. Not only was the water's temperature below that of icicles, but she had to shower at night so that the boys wouldn't see. Although the Warden had allowed her to use a screen she could prop up to hide from prying eyes, Rowe didn't want wandering boys to see silhouette through the screen, so she was forced to shower before she headed off to bed - when most of the boys were asleep, or in their tents.  
  
She had to wonder if this was some kind of test. Rowe had never seen another counselor shower outside, and she was positive that there was some kind of private shower - maybe, she thought, behind Mr. Sir's office, or perhaps, stationed somewhere else that no one knew about except the counselors. Maybe this was the Warden's idea of a test, an endurance trial of sorts, so she if she would be accepted among the rest of the grown-ups in Green Lake.  
  
The automatic timer shut the water off - and Rowe didn't know whether to be mad or happy about it. She wrapped her fluffy while towel (thank God she had brought it with her!) around her self and dried off quickly, wanting to escape the cool night air hitting her already freezing skin.  
  
Rowe sprinted to her tent and welcomed the warmth it brought. Squid was still sleeping restlessly on the cot, and Rowe tiptoed around and closed the curtain to change. She slipped on a pair of black boxers and a white tank top, and opened the curtain to brush her teeth and hair at the sink.  
  
As she brushed her hair, she thought about the day's events. She could hardly believe it had been just a day - it felt more like two or three days since Squid had been heaved into the back of Mr. Sir's truck and brought to the tent. It was a shame she hadn't seen the Warden.Rowe really needed to talk to her about getting more supplies. If anything happened like today, she knew she wouldn't be able to -  
  
Rowe put down her brush. It was time to sleep, and to stop thinking. Thinking was never good. Thinking brought back memories, and right now she was in a good place with her life.she couldn't afford to think anymore. She didn't want to remember anymore. 


End file.
